HDR Photography
The environment changes so completely when it rains that I can’t help but run out with my camera in the moments between storms. Today’s photograph is another from UC Berkeley’s Strawberry Creek on a particularly drizzly day. The contrast between nature and the manicured stone walls works out quite nicely when everything is wet and glistening.
This little stream was running by the trail not far from where Brendan took yesterday’s photo. At first, I felt distressed to see that tires had been dumped into the stream, but further inspection made it obvious that they’d been washed there in heavy rain years ago. There was a certain relief in seeing them encrusted in moss and being (at least partially) reclaimed.
The contrast between the blacks/greys of the tires/rocks and the array of greens in the moss, ferns, and trees worked out really nicely for highlighting the contrast between the “static” parts of the image and the encroaching life.
I’ve had good luck and bad with travel sites (e.g. Hotwire) that offer a price for a room based upon its location and general swankiness, but that hide the actual hotel until after you’ve booked. This time, however, I hit the photographic jackpot: the Westgate, built in 1970 and designed to recreate the Rococo stylings of of Versailes.
From the ornate carvings on the chairs to the silky, nearly-luminescent wallpaper, every detail screams “opulence;” spending just a few moments here brings to mind immediate thoughts of subjugating the populace.
I find 1:1 aspect ratio photographs to be some of the coolest, but taking them still challenges me. This particular image was taken in Palm Desert at HITS Thermal, and as you might expect, that means that this is the side of a horse trailer. The way the chrome distorts the other trailers and the bright sunlight makes curves on the ground made it worth trying 1:1 here.
Today is a more unusual shot of UC Berkeley’s Hearst Memorial Mining Building. As with so many other buildings on campus, the terrain and topology of surrounding the building have changed radically since it’s initial construction, with each shift requiring an adaptation to the landscaping and lower structure of the building to maintain access without violating the original design too severely. In this case, however, a fairly functional combination of tunnel entrance and stairs looks uncannily like some sort of ancient tomb. I keep waiting for Indiana Jones to come sprinting out past the ash trays with an enormous boulder rolling close behind him.
This is the imposing Latimer Hall in UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry. On this stormy afternoon, the sky and the bare tree and the building itself all took on this similar cast, but with such radically different textures and shapes. If you look carefully, the cracks and stains under each balcony level begin to resemble the geometry of the tree.
Today’s image is a shot up a telephone pole on a quiet night. I love the way the lens flare massively amplifies the oranges of the sodium-based streetlight in contrast with the blue-purple hues of the sky. This smeared palette looks particularly interesting against the pattern of cables and wires.
Back in January, when I was visiting San Diego, CA, I had a chance to drive to the top of Mt. Soledad (near La Jolla) to see the sunset. Ultimately, the day was too hazy to get really good sunset pictures, but I was able to shoot these surreal radio towers at the top of the mountain. I really like the way they stand in contrast to the bushy trees around them. Having played a lot of the fantastic Mass Effect 3 lately, seeing this photo put me in mind of some sort of sinister signal broadcast center.
A few days ago, I posted a photograph of an enigmatic pillar in the desert; perhaps today’s image can provide a bit more context to it. Off in the distance, you can see dozens of horse trailers associated with the HITS Thermal show, but other than that the environment is completely desolate. Out in the blistering sun, it was pretty intimidating.
When the weather turns cold and blustery and rainy, a warm place (e.g. library, cafe, bed) feels like a fortress. On this particular day in the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, it was definitely cold, blustery, and rainy, but without a warm place to retreat to while shooting, I made do with a literal fortress, instead.
Brendan and I have both posted before on how fantastic night shots look in HDR. Today’s photograph comes from Grizzly Peak, looking down over Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the South Campus area of Berkeley; the contrast between these two areas couldn’t be more stark. LBNL is flush with trees and tiny pockets of light along gently curving roads, while Berkeley itself is a foreign grid by comparison.
I spent last weekend in surreal Palm Desert, California at a particular horse show, but had some time to sneak away from the action and wander the desert. I found this enormous, concrete pylon surrounded by desiccated shrubs and was almost intimidated by the whole sight. I kept waiting for the apes to start fighting around it.
This is one of the earliest HDR images I ever took, and though I was still getting a few of the details worked out, I really loved the way that the reflection of the sun from the building’s windows was captured at sunset. The clouds and the soft forms of the hills make a nice contrast with the buildings of UC Berkeley.
This old pump links to an old well, and when I was a child, my favorite part of coming to this forrest was getting a chance to work the huge handle and get our just a little bit to drink. This pump is a water fountain you have to seriously commit to. In the time I’ve known about it, this pump has been repeatedly repainted; most recently, it was a chipped and dull red. When I returned to it as an adult, it was new, bright blue.
The Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge are more than just a viewpoint to take great pictures of the Bridge. They’re also honeycombed with bunkers and gun batteries that once defended the West Coast. Long abandoned, these solid and imposing structures are now decorated with enormous amounts of graffiti. This small bunker is just the beginning of the incredible art at these batteries.
